The present application relates generally to an improved data processing apparatus and method and more specifically to an apparatus and method for priority-based power capping in data processing systems.
Power capping is a technique for controlling a total amount of power being consumed in a group of computing systems, a single computing system, or a subsystem within a computing system. The value or setting for a power cap is generally defined by an external or internal management entity. Within a computing system, a power control loop measures power at the input to the computing system and adjusts the power consumption of components in the computing system to meet the identified power cap setting. These adjustments may affect the performance of the components and of the entire system. If the measured power is less than the power cap, then there is more power available for the components of the computing system. Thus, the available power may be used by increasing the performance and power consumption of the components of the computing system. If the measured power is more than the power cap, then the power must be reduced, which reduces the performance of components in the computing system.
Current solutions uniformly adjust the performance of components with only one goal: to meet the power cap setting. Known current solutions fail to address issues that some components may be running higher priority or lower priority workloads. Thus, current solutions have no way to distribute the performance change, which results from the change in power consumption or allowed power consumption, in proportion to the wishes expressed by set priority policies or priorities given to the computing system components by a user.